PWC assists with W/MBE compliance goals

Professional Women in Construction (PWC) is always there to assist. PWC has put in place a compliance committee to assist contractors and M/W/DBEs to assure that participation and attainment goals are reached. PWC is assisting with any project that has goals by providing encouragement, knowledge and experience. Being a woman in construction has its challenges. Working in the construction field in a nontraditional role you need to have the fortitude to overcome obstacles. I discovered quickly that local law 129, intended to encourage WBEs, actually penalized Florence Construction. Since WBEs were categorized by race and ethnicity and those owned by Caucasian women had no stated participation goals, Florence Construction was ignored on all local New York City construction projects. There was no incentive to hire us. A new law, Local Law 1, passed in July 2013 eliminates the $1 million cap on M/W/EBE (minority, woman-owned, emerging) program-eligible contracts and allows for the inclusion of higher value contracts. Local Law 1-2013 establishes new citywide participation goals that include ALL women-owned companies regardless of race or ethnicity and sets the goal at 18%. Florence Chilton, president of Florence Construction Corp., a NYC/NYS certified WBE/DBEcivil construction company, chairs the compliance committee and serves on the PWC board of directors, New York, N.Y.